1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of preventing and controlling insect pests. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of preventing and controlling insect pests based on a physiological perception to develop a visual cue trap.
2. Description of Related Art
Color traps are convenient tools for monitoring and controlling pests. Hundreds of application studies have been published to discuss the effects of the color traps for various pests. However the definitions of the applied colors are often based on the human perception, which maybe confused with different spectra.
The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, for example, is the main fruit fly pest in the Pacific Rim, and numerous lure-and-kill traps with yellow colored surfaces have been developed and applied in the field, such as yellow sticky papers and methyleugenol-baited traps.
Although the “yellow traps” are applied to control this pest, the crucial attractive cues have still not been fully investigated. In fact, using a color name as a reference to describe a fly's preference is not correct, since the human color vision is quite different from insects. Thus, the developed insect traps have serious functional deficiencies. Moreover, the “negative attractive cues” may touch off and lead to loses in the efficacy of these traps.
To achieve the purpose of developing a more effectively chromatic cue trap, there is a need to understand the chromatic cues of insects with a physiological perspective to describe and define the visual preference behavior precisely.